


The Echoes of What We Knew

by NotWithoutHaste



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (but some secretly), Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst, Bounty Hunter Bokuto and Akaashi, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture, Past Violence, Rebellion, Robot Yamaguchi, Space Opera, Violence, abuse and rape and torture oh my!, also some present abuse rape and torture too I suppose (but later), animal hybrid people, everyone is angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-18 08:03:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9375707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotWithoutHaste/pseuds/NotWithoutHaste
Summary: Kuroo and Kenma, ex-freedom fighters, and current fugitives are some of the biggest bounties in the galaxy. When Bounty Hunters Akaashi and Bokuto capture Kuroo on behalf of the Ukai Crime Syndicate they think that's all they'll have to do with the matter.But soon they find that Kuroo is not the lowlife rogue they thought he was, and where he goes, Kenma, and trouble follows.





	1. Prologue

It was the day before Kuroo’s thirteen birthday when the Federation ships came.

Kuroo Tetsuro and Kenma Kozume were outside, using the last light of the day to practice tossing a Grav-Ball between the two of them. It had taken Tetsuro all day to convince Kenma to relinquish his handheld video game and come outside to play. But after every bribe, plea, and annoying trick Tetsuro could muster Kenma had relented. There they played one a side using the frayed net. Tetsuro grinned like he’d just inherited the universe, Kenma would quietly cast the occasional glance to the spot under tree under where he'd left his game.

It was the sound of the ships they noticed first, or more specifically, Kenma noticed. He mentioned it to Tetsuro, who passed the distant hum off as natural white noise, a symptom of living out in the middle of nowhere. Kenma shrugged, and they continued to play.

The sound grew louder.

Kenma mentioned it again and this time Tetsuro stopped the game to listen properly. The hum had grown from innocuous to ambient and was still growing. Kenma turned the small metal cylinder that he wore as a necklace absentmindedly in concentration and Tetsuro ran a hand through his disheveled hair. They could make the sound out better now. It was less of a hum and more of a warble, with the repetitious predicability that diegetic sounds lacked.

Realisation hit them at the same moment, and they exchanged a look of horror. 

They both turned and began to sprint back to the farmhouse, Tetsuro abandoning the ball where he had dropped and Kenma leaving his video game under the tree.

A second after they began their sprint a squadron ships, the origins of the sound, came screaming around the nearby mountains. They were in a tight formation, seven ships in total. The ships were pointed black daggers, each emblazoned with Federation flags on their sides and possessed twin vanes that stuck out of the wings on their sides. Their entire design was predatory, an idea that was on furthered by the plethora of weapons; eco blasters, missiles, and bombs, that were mounted on the noses and wings.

Without the mountain in the way the noise became a roar. The boys cried out but were muffled by the boom of the ships eco engines as they passed. The ships, Seraphim class they noted, looped back around and then began to land making a swift descent onto the fields surrounding their house. Tetsuro reckoned that they had a minute and a half at most before they landed and Federation soldiers would come for them. 

He picked up his pace, grabbing Kenma by the hand and pulled him along. 

They reached the farmhouse moments before the ships landed. Tetsuro burst through the door, still dragging Kenma behind him, and immediately began to shout for his parents.

‘Mom, Dad! They’re here, they’re here. Mom, Dad-‘ Tetsuro was cut off by his mother, Shima Kuroo. She intercepted the two of them and swept them into a brief but tight hug. Shima was a matronly woman, who’s worn but beautiful features were currently written with concern. Her mess of hair, that she had bestowed upon Tetsuro, did nothing to lessen her panicked look.

‘I know my sweets. I know.’ Shima said, taking Kuroo’s free hand to lead them through the house.

They passed the radar scanner, which was flashing an alarming red, it had picked up the Seraphim ships almost a minute before Tetsuro or Kenma had even heard them. She took them through the kitchen, in which half cut food left out on the bench where they’d been abandoned. Finally Shima led the boys to the study wherein Tetsuro’s father was currently hunched over the monitor. The face of a greying man filled the screen. Tetsuro went to talk to his father, but he held up a hand, halting the words before they had a chance to leave his sons mouth.

‘They’ve found us Nekomata. I’m sending the children to the rendevouz.’

‘I Understand Genji.’ The man replied. The screen cut to hash.

Genji then walked over to the closet in the corner and took two of the eco rifles from it. They were grey and blocky beasts whose only defining feature were the glowing red-eco cores. He threw one to his wife, who caught it instinctively with her free hand. He raised the other and fired it twice into the monitor, blasting it, and it’s call log, into irreparable pieces.

‘They’ve found us.’ Tetsuro blurted out.

His father nodded. Genji was ever calm looking, even in that moment. His hair was groomed neatly over to one side in a manner that neither his wife nor son could ever hope to achieve. He gave a quick glance out the window, the Seraphim’s had landed roughly a hundred feet away and soldiers were already beginning to pour out of their bellies.

Genji was well aware that a Seraphim could transport a dozen men plus pilots. And there were seven. He exchanged a glance with his wife. They’d always known that this day would come, but they’d never anticipated that the Federation would send so many men. He quirked his eyebrow and Shima responded by tightening her grip on her rifle. Genji gave a swift nod in response.

He turned back son and surrogate son. Kenma, with his long dark hair, would have been easily mistaken as a member of the family had it not been for his cat ears and tail, a certain sign that, while Kuroo and his family were human, he most certainly was not. Tetsuro’s father knelt before the two boys, gripping a shoulder each.

‘Do you know where your packs are?’ He asked. ‘And your guns?’

They both nodded. Genji met his sons eyes, they exchanged a solemn look. He turned to Kenma, gave a glance at the small grey cylinder he had tied around his neck, before meeting his eyes as well. Kenma hummed in affirmation and Tetsuro’s father nodded again.

He squeezed both their shoulders and then stood quickly, picking up his gun again. ’Good.’ He said. ‘I want you to go get them, then use the tunnel to get out. From there go to the old barn and take the air-cycle to the safe house. Don’t wait for us, don’t look back, and don’t get caught. And Kenma.’ He added, his voice toughening. ‘Under no circumstances are you allowed to use your abilities. Do you understand?’

Kenma went to argue.

‘Do you understand?’ He demanded.

Kenma gave a curt nod.

‘Good. Now you two must run.’ He said it so calmly it was almost as if they were going out to play for a while rather than running from soldiers.

‘What about you?’ Tetsuro demanded, his voice shaky.

‘We’re going to buy you time.’ His father said, picking extra ammo out of the closet and handing some to his wife.

‘But-‘ Tetsuro began.

‘We’ll see each other again Tetsu,’ His mother said. ‘I promise.’

She gave them both a smile that tried it’s best to be hopeful but wound up somewhere on the borders of woeful and harrowing. Kenma knew that kind of smile, and was acquainted with these kinds of promises all too intimately.

It was the kind of promise destined to be broken.

‘I love you Tetsu.’ She said to her son. ‘I love you both. Now go.’

They went.

The boys dashed to their room, picking the packs up from the front of their beds and their eco pistols from where they were kept next to their clocks on the bed stands. Tetsuro took a spare second to take a picture of his family. It was his mother and father with arms arounds each others waists, himself on his fathers shoulders, and Kenma off to the side, with a small grin on his face that seemed dissonant in comparison to the wide smiles on the faces of the Kuroo’s

They made their way down to the parlour, the contents of their packs jangling on their backs. They passed a window on the way and out of it spotted a line of black-clad Federation soldiers slowly making their way toward the house, weapons bared. They passed another window and saw yet more soldiers. There must have been dozens of them.

The house was completely surrounded.

Once in the parlour Tetsuro opened the secret tunnel, reaching up behind the mantel to pull the lever. The mantel swung open like a door to reveal a dark tunnel, barely large enough for the pair of them to crawl through with their packs on. It had originally been designed for the pair of them when they were younger, but Kenma was entering a growth spurt and Tetsuro was already midway through his, both were bigger now than they were then.

But regardless they dropped to all fours and shimmed through. They were in total darkness. Kenma in the lead, his tail flicking Tetsuro in the face. Tetsuro was breathing haggardly, each gasp filling Kenma’s far more sensitive ears. They crawled onwards for what felt like hours but in reality couldn’t have been more than two or three minutes. Before long, Kenma bumped his head not softly on the steel hatch that marked the end of the tunnel.

Kenma grabbed the handle. 

’We have to be careful.’ Tetsuro reminded.

Even in the pitch black Tetsuro knew Kenma was giving him a reproachful glare.

They pushed the hatch open and climbed up out into the waning sunlight. The tunnel came out at the edge of the west field, about a hundred feet away from the farmhouse. The door was covered in dirt and rocks so when it was closed you couldn’t tell it was there. In the fields half a dozen farm androids went about their business, all rolling down the field on tracked wheels. One came right next to the boys and then halted. Kenma gave it a puzzled glance, it should have kept moving on an automated loop. 

He returned his attention to scene in front of them. 

Seraphim’s had landed all around their house and there was one to both their left and right. The soldiers had completely missed the hatch and instead had surrounded the house. Kenma counted sixty, Tetsuro sixty six. That still left at least dozen unaccounted for, if not more. Before they could consider where the other soldiers were their attention was caught by a man who exited the lead Seraphim and made a deadline for the farmhouse. Unlike the soldiers, who were all dressed in black combat armour the man was dressed in an officers tunic of white and maroon, the colours of the Shiratorizawa Federation.

‘Captain Kuroo.’ The man called, his voice a deep rumble. ‘You’re house is surrounded. Surrender now and you will be spared.’

Genji stepped out from the farmhouse and made his way toward the leader of the group.

‘Captain Genji Kuroo.’ The leader, presumably an officer, said. 

‘Just Genji Kuroo now.’ He called back. ‘I see they made you a Major, Ushijima, you must be proud.’

The officer, Ushijima remained impassive. ‘I take it Shima is inside, back from the dead too?’

Genji shrugged in a what-can-I-say kind of way. Ushijima whose expression seemed to be as pressed as his uniform made no indication that he was going to reply. A beat of silence passed. Genji went to take a step. This was met by twenty rifles being raised in unison. Tetsuro gripped Kenma’s arm so tightly that he thought he was going to lose all blood flow to it.

Genji raised his hands apologetically and gave a trying grin to match.

‘You know why we’re here.’ Ushijima said. ‘Hand them over.’

‘Hand what over?’

Ushijima raised an eyebrow. ‘The experiment and crypto-file. Now.’

The last word rang out. Genji met it with silence. Another beat passed, Ushijima gave a contemptuous snort.

‘We were this close to success.’ Ushijima said. ‘Finally we were going to create an instrument for change.’

‘For fear.’ Genji shot back.

‘For the greater good.’ Ushijima replied.

Genji gave a dry laugh. Ushijima looked like he’d been slapped.

‘There’s a difference between what is good and what is right.’ Genji said.

Ushijima met Genji in a stare. A third silent beat passed. Without a so much as a flicker in his poker face Ushijima raised his hand and bared three fingers, the soldiers aimed their weapons, Genji did nothing. 

‘This is your final warning. You have till the count of three.’

Ushijima lowered a finger. Still Genji did nothing. Kenma felt Tetsuro’s grip tighten and his breath hitch.

Ushijima lowered a second finger. Genji slipped a small device out of his pocked. Tetsuro tightened his grip beyond what Kenma thought human. Kenma desperate for something to grip himself grabbed a hold of the farm android that had now stopped beside them for far longer than their simple programming should have allowed.

Ushijima went to lower his final finger but as he did several things happened at once.

Genji whipped his rifle around and fired two shots at Ushijima gunslinger style, the first missed by a few inches, the second hitting his side. A glancing shot but still enough to cause Ushijima to buckle.

The soldiers made to fire back but a split second before they did Genji pressed the button on the device he pulled from his pocket. The farm android’s began to fire eco rifles that the boys weren’t even aware they were fitted with. Half and dozen Shiratorizawa soldiers went down immediately, the others ran for cover behind trees, bushes, or even behind the landing struts of the Seraphim’s and began to return fire. The air filled with the red blasts of eco weapons being fired from every direction. Weaponised eco sizzled through the air, leaving blast burns on everything they touched. Kenma and Tetsuro had to duck behind a mound of dirt to avoid getting hit by the crossfire.

The farm android next to the boys was hit and exploded, the heat searingly hot against their cheeks. With the farm android nearest to them destroyed the weapons fire was drawn away and the boys could risk and furtive glance. They did, peeking their heads over the dirt mound to look back at the farm house.

Two steady streams of eco weapon fire were coming from within, Genji had made it back inside and now, in tandem with Shima, were holding the soldiers at bay. As for the soldiers half their number had gone down and the other half, Ushijima among them, were retreating quickly whilst return returning fire. The windows of the farm house were blown out one by one and the creamy walls were slowly getting burnt black.

‘Mom, Dad…’ Tetsuro said, awed. ‘Look Kenma they’re pushing them back!’

Kenma furrowed his brow, began to turn the necklace again in his hand. The retreat seemed too rehearsed, too tactical and not nearly frantic enough. He shook it off, took Tetsuro’s hand and pulled to go. When Tetsoru wouldn’t budge he said. ‘They’re doing this for us Kuro, come on.’

Tetsuro gave the house on last look, and it was in that moment that it happened. As he went to look away a motion caught his eye. One of the landed Seraphim ships launched something that appeared to him to be a thin black needle, but with a burst of flame gushing out of it like a firework. Tetsuro realised what the needle was and called out to his parents even though he knew it was too late. It was all he could do.

The needle was a missile. And that missile hit flew straight through the still open door of the farmhouse and emitted a thunderous boom when it hit something inside.

Everything seemed to slow for Tetsuro at that moment. For a second that was longer than an age nothing seemed to happen. 

Then red-eco explosion began to grow from within. The red-eco kept getting bigger and bigger, until eventually it was got too big for the farmhouse to contain it and so it had to push it away. For a second the pieces of farmhouse, their house, hung in the air like the pieces of a dolls house waiting to be assembled. Then the explosion bloomed out into a beautiful fiery rose and pushed every bit of the house in every direction, sending it flying across the landscape.

Kenma and Tetsuro were blown off their feet by the strength of the blast, and huddled for cover as burning bits of debris landed all around them. The soldiers had retreated out of the blast radius and took cover from the bits of house that rained down around them. One particularly large piece was flung directly at one of the Seraphim, but a second before impact it was repelled away by the yellow eco shield protecting it.

Eventually the rain of debris ended and Kenma picked himself off of the ground.

Tetsuro tried to stand. ‘Mom, Dad…’ He said in a much different tone to before.

Tears began to steam down his cheeks and he fell onto his knees and began to wail. Kenma grabbed his friend and heaved him to his feet. Tetsuro stumbled on his first step, his knees were so shaky that he could barely stand. He dropped his pistol and nearly fell, but Kenma caught him. Kenma began to rub his back and lead him slowly, one step at a time. 

Eventually Tetsuro seemed to regain the basic principles of walking and Kenma tugged him slowly into a run. He could see how much it was straining Tetsuro. He knew how much it hurt, how much his friend just wanted to curl into a ball and give up, but also knew that they had to go as fast as they could. They would only have moments before the soldiers collected themselves and went looking for them.

Kenma led him through the field as fast as he could. The stalks of the lemmna plants they farmed almost doubling their height and blocked any long distance vision. Ordinarily Kenma would have gotten hopelessly lost, however, sticking up out of the field were a dozen scarecrows. When they reached one they followed the direction it’s right arm was pointing in until they reached the next one, and in turn followed it’s arm. This was a secret route that Tetsuro’s parents had set up, as long as they followed the scarecrows right arms they would be led out of the field and to the old barn.

They reached the final scarecrow, followed it’s arm, and dashed out of the field and toward the old barn. It was a dilapidated old building, half of it’s roof having collapsed. They had picked this spot to stash the escape vehicle three years ago, figuring it to be the most innocuous building on the farm. At the moment it appeared they were right as there seemed to be no Shiratorizawa soldiers nearby.

Tetsuro’s legs gave way and he fell to the ground again gasping shotgun blast breaths. Kenma sighed and tried to pull Tetsuro back up, his thin limbs straining with the effort. But this time Tetsuro remained immovable, and try as he might Kenma couldn’t budge him.

‘Freeze.’ A voice called.

Kenma froze mid-pull, Tetsuro hiccuped in fright.

Two soldiers rounded from the side of the barn, rifles raised at them. Kenma had his gun clipped to his belt tried to raise it, but his relaxes with weapons weren’t as strong as his relaxes with games and the soldiers got off warning shot that buzzed past his ear. 

He dropped his weapon in fright, his adrenaline so high that it took him a second to realise it wasn’t in his hand anymore. Tetsuro hiccuped again but the warning shot had stopped his sobbing, fear seeming to work on his tears just as well as it did on Kenma’s fine motor control.

The soldiers stopped twenty feet away. From that distance Kenma and Tetsuro could make out what their armour looked like far better. It seemed to be made of jet-black carbon fibre, with only break in colour being the small Shiratorizawa flag over the heart. The armour was heavily built on the legs, arms, and shoulders whilst slim in the body, giving soldiers a mantis like appearance. This was only accentuated further by the bug-faced helmets they wore. They had a grated breathing apparatus over the mouth and two filters that sat like pincers along the jaw-line. The top half of the helmet was made up almost entirely of two large dome like lenses which started at the eyes and ran all the way over the forehead and ended at the start of the crown.

One of the soldiers said. ‘Sir, we’ve located the two children and have them in custody.’ 

They waited a few seconds, presumably for a reply from the radio built into their helmets. 

‘Understood.’ One the soldiers said.

They began approached with weapons raised. 

Kenma’s breathing hitched and he instinctually pressed his ears back and began to hiss at the soldiers. His gaze darted around in a desperate search for options. A weapon, a way out, anything. Genji told him not to use his powers and he knew why, he knew what they made Sage’s become, what they were forced to do. And he was a Hybrid as well, not entitled to the same rights because he was not fully human but rather an animal splice.

They would torture him, and brainwash him, and force him to fight for them.

He tightened his grip on his friends hand, and dug is feet in.

The soldiers grabbed them. Kenma and Tetsuro tried to struggle, bucking and kicking and trying to head-but just like they were taught but the soldiers were too strong and they were overpowered in seconds. They were picked up by the soldiers and flung over the shoulders.

Kenma began to hyperventilate. It was just like in his nightmares, the soldiers were here, they were destroying everything and were going to take him away just like before. Except this time no one would come to save him because Genji and Shima had done that last time and they were dead, they’d died just like his parents had done. Died for him, to try and save him, and he got caught anyway.

Kenma tried struggling again but achieved nothing. He felt the bubbling of eco within him. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Tetsuro struggling, beating helplessly against the back of his captor with all his strength. The eco surged and Kenma surged back, building the mental dam like Genji had taught him. He reminded himself that as long the soldiers didn’t know there was still a chance that they’d survive.

Tetsuro struggled against his captor again. The soldier punched him hard in response, drawing blood immediately.

The dam Kenma built against the eco broke.

It flooded out of him in a hot rage.

Purple waves of pure eco flowed from his body, his chest, wrists, neck, anywhere the heart or it’s mirror beat could be found. It ran out of him in rivulets and wound themselves together to form long tendrils of eco that served as extensions of Kenma’s own body.

The eco obeyed Kenma’s white rage and seized the guards. Tendrils of purple wrapped around their bodies and threw them away from Tetsuro and himself and into the wall of the old barn. The wall cratered where the guards hit. Before they could fall to the ground Kenma caught them with two new tendrils suspended them in mid air and completely at his mercy. 

Kenma sent another wave of eco tendrils at them, most slamming into their bodies with savage force; breaking arms, ribs, and legs. But two tendrils, one for each guard, wrapped themselves around their necks and began to squeeze.

The tendrils squeezed, harder and harder, for Shima, for Genji, for Tetsuro, for Kenma’s parents.

A loud snap rang out.

Their bodies went limp, but Kenma didn’t feel the rage dissipate, so neither did the eco. 

He held the corpses there many moments after the breaking of their necks.

‘Hey.’ Tetsuro said softly. ‘I think you got them.’

Finally the rage faded and with it the echo surge. The tendrils disintegrated and vanished as Kenma regained his bearings.

Then he realised what he had done.

He threw up.

When he stopped he whimpered. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean too…’

‘I know.’ Tetsuro said uncertainly. ‘Now come on please.’

Kenma didn’t move at first.

‘Kenma please come on.’ Tetsuro said, shaking his shoulder. ‘You can cry tonight when we’re away from here, lord knows I will, but we have to go now.’

He tugged again, Kenma’s knees gave way and he sprawled out over the dirt.

‘Kenma please.’ Kuroo begged. ‘You’re all I have left.’

For a moment Kenma didn’t stir.

Then he stood, grabbed Tetsuro by the hand, and together they went into the old barn. There they found the rusted old air-cycle hidden under a tarp. They climbed on and started and Tetsuro started it up, the blue echo engine slowly groaning to life. They rode it out of the old barn and over the farmland and eventually onto an old unmarked track.

Tetsuro looked back once at the column of smoke rising into the air and then turned back and focused back on the road.

Kenma buried his face into Tetsuro’s back and did not look up at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thank you for clicking on and reading to the end of this first chapter! This was a setup chapter that is set years before the main story, next chapter will take us to the present, main plot, and to all the lovely ships *rubs hands together*  
> I want to thank you again for reading this first chapter, and encourage any feedback you might have. I really want to know what you guys thought, what you liked/disliked, what needs work, and what you'd like to see in the story.  
> I'm planning on doing weekly undates for this story (on Tuesday/Wednesday depending on where you're from, I'm from Australia and it's Wednesday here) but I may shift this day depending on what ends up working best for little old me.
> 
> Next Chapter brought to you by: Time jumps, Tsukishima's salty ass, Yama's sweet ass, Kenma and Kuroo's fugitive ass(es), Akaashi's patient ass and his eye for Bokuto's great ass.


	2. Predators

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We time jump ten years into the future where Bokuto and Akaashi are hunting down a familiar face with a big bounty on his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is Wednesday my dudes, ahhhhhhhhhh.

Bokuto’s eyes narrowed to focus on a man standing twenty feet in front of him.

He looked like he’d rolled straight out of bed and onto the street, only taking enough time to throw his black duster coat on. 

He was just one dozens of other people currently bustling down the narrow alley. 

There were Hybrids; some with marsupial ears, others with scaled faces and webbed hands, and some whose skin seemed to constantly shift and change to match their surroundings. There were androids who looked near-human and cyborgs that seemed to be more machine than man. Men of science walked side by side with shamans, much one and the same to those who did not know how to tell the difference.

The mussy haired man did not look out of place in a city where no two people looked the same.

‘Hey hey hey Akaashi.’ Bokuto whispered into the radio.

‘What?’ Akaashi returned.

Akaashi’s voice came between two loud crackles of static. Bokuto winced.

‘What?’ Akaashi asked again, sounding concerned. ‘Is everything alright?’

Bokuto smirked momentarily but ushered the expression away as quickly as it had appeared. The man in front of him began to walk, slipping through the crowd. Bokuto followed, keeping the twenty foot distance and slightly to the mans right. 

‘What?’

Bokuto raised his hand to his earpiece.

‘I’ve got eyes on the target.’ Bokuto said. ‘My eleven o’clock. Twenty feet away.’

Akaashi sat high above the scene, watching from the top of the cloister tower of a church. 

The church was a jagged monstrosity, carved into a design that looked like it could cut and made entirely out of mirrors. According to locals it was meant to symbolise an element of the religious beliefs of the Third Tempue Sect. 

Akaashi felt uncomfortable when he looked at it for too long.

But the cloister tower gave him a perfect 360 degree view of the streets below. And even better, the mirrors made for the perfect cover, one could never quite tell if he was really up there or if he was just an abstraction of imagination.

He watched Bokuto as he attempted to stay on the targets tail, sidestepping a fast moving Hybrid woman with a feathered scalp only to almost run into a pair of construction androids.

He almost grinned at his boyfriends antics. 

This was in the same way as when he’d almost grinned when Bokuto had insisted on buying the matching black and white flak armour they were now wearing. And same again to the way he’d almost grinned when Bokuto revealed he’d created a team logo for them and spray painted it onto the shoulder pads of their new armour in ugly yellow paint.

‘I see the target.’ Akaashi said, arming his eco-bow. Beams of green energy snaked out from the tips a met to form an eco-bowstring.

’I can’t see his friend though.’ Bokuto said.

Akaashi searched around, his artificial eyes zooming in and out on different potential targets. ‘They might meet up somewhere. Don’t fixate on it. This one is worth enough by himself and Ukai only needs one.’

He saw Bokuto nod slightly as he pushed on through the crowd, keeping on the targets tail. 

‘And stop putting your hand on your ear. It’s conspicuous.’

‘Sorry.’

Akaashi kept his eco-bow aimed at the targets head. It was difficult for both of them to keep track at any one time. Often Bokuto would lose track of him for a moment when he slipped behind a large spinner only to have him step out from behind it a moment later or be revealed when the spinner lifted itself off the ground or simply drove off to the next place it was meant to be. 

Conversely Akaashi would lose track of the target when he moved behind one of the large ornamental structures that littered the city. The structures were meaningless to all but the few who still believed in the teachings of the Third Tempue Sect. Sometimes one of the endless number of freighters that trafficked the planet daily would block his view as it rose from the ground or descended into one of the many hangers across the city and Akaashi would have to wait for it to pass.

They almost lost track of him twice; the first when a small group of Monks of the Third Tempeu passed straight through both their lines of sight and the second when a beggar ambled to Bokuto and began to pull at his clothes. Bokuto knocked him out with a swift punch. Nobody who saw the man get hit did anything. 

After both times Bokuto was able to find the target easily enough, just by searching the crowd for an unruly mess of black hair atop a tall man.

‘You see him?’ Akaashi asked after Bokuto was stopped for the second time.

Bokuto raised his hand to his ear. ‘Yes. Following now.’

‘Good.’ A pause. ‘Put your hand down.’

Bokuto squeezed between a pair of two enormous men in pilot jumpsuits, he wondered a moment how they might fit into the cockpit of any ship. Bokuto shook away the thought and returned his attention to the target.

Kuroo Tetsuro.

He asked Akaashi to talk through all the information they had on him again. Running through the facts again would help him concentrate on the matter at hand rather than things like the difficulty the obese pilots would have had entering a ships cockpit.

Akaashi began his monologue but stopped a moment later when he saw a quartet of Shiratorizawa soldiers round the corner at the other end of the alley. Bokuto watched Kuroo closely. The moment Kuroo saw the soldiers his body tensed. He ran one hand through his hair and the other over something concealed within his black duster coat. 

Bokuto edged closer to the target.

The crowd parted to allow the Shiratorizawa soldiers through. In the sudden commotion Bokuto was pulled to the right side of the alley, Kuroo to the left. A woman with a child in her arms pushed Bokuto while he was off balance and he fell, losing sight of the target.

‘You there!’ One of the soldiers called out. ‘Stop.’

The soldiers flicked the setting on their weapons from red to green. 

Kuroo’s breath hitched. He reached into his coat.

Bokuto scrambled back onto his feet, arming his own weapons as he rose.

Akaashi pulled back the string off his eco-bow.

They each squared their shoulders and sized up the nearest Shiratorizawa soldier.

Suddenly a woman in a wide-brimmed steel hat broke from the crowd and began to run. 

She threw two blasts of red-eco back at the soldiers as she fled. The first one missed, hit a pile of crates and blew them apart causing passersby to scream and shield themselves. The second one found it’s mark, slamming into a Shiratorizawa soldier, blasting a large hole in the chest of his black armour.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

The Sage made it three seconds before the soldiers shot her down with a series of green ‘stun’ eco blasts. 

They hit her torso twice, her legs four times, and once on her right shoulder. 

The sage slumped to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut. She lay in the motionless in the dirt for several seconds. Then bolts of green electricity began to leapt out from the places where the eco blasts had hit and attacked nerves centres causing uncontrollable convulsions and frothing at the mouth.

She writhed around on the ground, screaming soundlessly. The crowd shared a winced.

The Shiratorizawa soldiers flicked their weapons settings back to red, lethal, and pointed them at the crowd. Everyone cleared away quickly. The soldiers swarmed around the woman on the ground and placed a pair of yellow-eco hand-binders on her.

‘The Sage is secure.’ Bokuto heard one of the soldiers say. ‘Bringing her back to base.’

Bokuto diverted his attention from the scene, back to where Kuroo was standing. 

Had been standing.

‘Akaashi I’ve lost sight of the target.’ Bokuto whispered.

‘Of course you have.’

‘Help please.’

‘Hold on.’

Akaashi began to search the crowd for the mess of hair. His artificial eyes allowed him an inhuman amount of focus. From where he was sitting he was able to dart from face to face, zooming in so far he could see their every blemish. They were linked to his neural patterns and responded to every thought. They connected with the data-stream and ran facial recognition scans; bringing up names, criminal records, personal details, any piece of information available on the the data-stream, classified or otherwise.

The information was then converted back into neural waves and sent to his brain. He scanned through every fact, deleting anything that wasn’t relevant, keeping anything that was.

After six-hundred and eighty three facial scans, seven seconds, he found a match.

‘He’s in the market. A hundred feet your nine o’clock, moving quickly.’

‘Ah Akaashi I love you.’ Said Bokuto.

Akaashi shifted his gaze back to Bokuto, who was moving away from the scene with the Sage and towards the market-place. He zoomed his gaze in on Bokuto and watched as he sprinted down the alley, ducking and dodging with a grin on his face. Akaashi’s attention wondered from Bokuto’s “stupid dumb ridiculous” hair down his muscular shoulders until he found himself staring at his ass. 

The new pants he’d bought were very tight.

Akaashi almost grinned. 

Then he grinned.

‘Eyes on the prize Keiji.’

Akaashi snapped back to Kuroo, who was still currently pushing through the bustling market-place.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ Akaashi replied tonelessly.

Bokuto allowed himself another split-second smirk before he stepped into the market place. If the street had been busy than the market was pandemonium. 

The market was made up of rows of hastily set up stalls, nothing more than tables with tarps thrown over them lest another bout of acid rain roll in. All around people haggled, shouted, screamed, and squawked. Everything seemed to be for sale, android parts, rare crystals, fake passports, sliviath amber, oravian silks, containers of raw eco, perfumes, weapons, a junkie was even selling “bottled dreams”. 

One old woman whose face was written with years called ‘Fortune reading, reveal your destiny for only four Credits. Tea leaves, palm reading, crystal scrying, trepanning, all only four credits.’ Another man with an unscrupulous manner called out that he had ‘the freshest food, for the fairest price.’ Most people were keeping clear of his stall.

Bokuto looked through the crowd, and from the cloister Akaashi did the same. After several moments of searching Bokuto spied a black mass of hair between a a stout woman selling ‘hybrid fur cleanser’ and a man preaching something apocryphal to anyone who would listen. He looked down at the targets face to confirm it was Kuroo, and was met by a pair of dark eyes looking straight back.

Kuroo eyes narrowed.

‘I think he’s seen me.’ Bokuto whispered, putting his hand up to his radio.

‘Put your hand do-‘

Kuroo shot Bokuto a sly wink. 

He ran.

‘-wn.’ Akaashi sighed. ‘He saw you.’

Bokuto ran after Kuroo with Akaashi guiding him through the throng, recommending shortcuts and guiding around bottlenecks. He zig zagged past people and pushed others out of the way. He knocked over stands accidentally and nearly tripped on the ones Kuroo had knocked down on purpose.

Bokuto rounded a corner only to be met by a wall of people. 

Kuroo was nowhere to be seen.

‘Damn I’ve lost him.’ Akaashi said. ‘Hold on.’

Bokuto’s gaze darted from person to person, trying to spot Kuroo in the sea of people. He gave up quickly, trying to spot him now was futile. Instead he listened. A second later he heard something, a string of somethings. People calling ‘hey’ and ‘watch it’ coming from just one row over. He looked and saw Kuroo pushing past people, try to loop around him and head back out into the alley.

Bokuto waited until Kuroo got closer, until he was almost level, before he acted.

Suddenly he leapt up into the air. 

If this action had looked foolish it only did so for a moment because a micro-second later a small ‘whoomp’ sound came from his boot and he was propelled higher. Another step accompanied by another ‘whoomp’ and he rose a little high again. He took half a dozen of these steps, propelled through the air by his boots, before he came landing back down one line of stalls over and directly in front of Kuroo.

Kuroo’s eyes went wide. But the shock didn’t stop him from reaching into his coat to pull out a pistol. He aimed it at Bokuto’s head but before he could fire he was disarmed by a concussive blast of blue eco.

He glared back at Bokuto who stood there with one leg raised in the air kick-boxing style. His attention was immediately caught by the underside of Bokuto’s boot. There was a large hole in the middle of the heel, a gun barrel. Along the sides of the boots ran a pair of thick metal beams from the centre of which emanated a soft blue light.

Bokuto’s boots were blue eco emitters. He had used them to shoot the gun out of his hand.

Kuroo raised his hands slowly seemingly conceding. Bokuto began to approach, pulling out a pair of yellow eco binders.

He was too close when he saw a flash of metal.

Now it was Bokuto’s turn to go wide eyed as he realised that Kuroo had a blade concealed in his sleeve and was about to bring it down quickly across his face and throat.

Just as he began his swing he was hit in the back an arrow of green eco. All the motion and energy seemed to drain from his body and he slumped to the ground and began to convulse uncontrollably. 

Bokuto looked to where Akaashi was and gave him a thumbs up. He received a snort in response.

Bokuto looked back at Kuroo and cringed.

His handsome pride was stripped away as writhed in the mud. Kuroo’s body looked like it was being pulled by invisible ropes and stabbed with invisible spears. The green eco began shoot out from Kuroo’s spine to attack his body, every nerve centre getting hit with bolts of green lightning over and over. He rolled and convulsed, agony spilling out of him in the form of foam from his mouth. 

Suddenly dozens of bolts shot out at once and hooked into him. The was making Kuroo it’s puppet.

The eco pulled and Kuroo rolled over, his pleading eyes forced skyward.

It pulled again and he arched his back, a grimace on his face.

It pulled, and his face contorted into a silent howl.

‘Stop it.’ Akaashi whispered. ‘Please.’

Bokuto brought up his right leg and slammed it down at Kuroo, firing another blast of blue eco at him and knocking him out cold.

…

Bokuto and Akaashi sat in a large round ante-chamber. 

It was cavernous space with a circular pool in the centre. Several people were swimming back and forth with long languid strokes, they were all scantily clad or even nude. A soft blue light radiated from the centre of the pool. It made spectres of the swimmers, turning them into faceless shadows. Red lights were positioned around the edge of the room and faced inwards. They cast beams of scarlet through the dark. Where the two lights met they mixed, making a magenta that danced across the faces of the people who loitered around.

The people were the courtiers and courtesans of the Ukai Crime Syndicate. These people were animals; vultures, ravens, hyenas and foxes, more savage than bears, more cunning rats. All predators. They stood around the room, hugging to the shadows, watching one and other closely.

A disparate group of rogues unified only by the weapons they all openly wore.

Bokuto, Akaashi and Tsukishima, a tall blonde haired man, sat side by side at the edge of the pool. Bokuto had his boots off and toes dipped the water in whilst he explained their latest hunt to a bored looking Tsukishima.

‘Bullshit.’ Tsukishima said when Bokuto finished his tale.

‘What?’ Said Bokuto.

Tsukishima took a lazy drag from the cigarette hanging between his lips. His face almost completely shrouded in darkness except for the occasional flicker of blue which washed over him but only managed to catch the edges of his goggles and the bones in his angular face. ’You did not take him down that easily.’ Tsukishima said. He arched an eyebrow, the blonde was dyed blue for a second. ‘Not by yourselves.’

Bokuto face caught the light, a flash of red meeting the blue and forming a line of purple straight down the centre. Because of this Tsukishima could easily make out Bokuto’s dismay. The tri-colouring across his face only adding to his already cartoonish expression. Bokuto’s eyes grew owlishly wide while his mouth attempted to make words but failed in the execution. This went on for several moments.

Finally he managed. ‘We did too catch him by ourselves.’

Tsukishima huffed skeptically.

Bokuto’s eyes grew even wider. ‘We did I swear. Come on Akaashi back me up.’

Akaashi made a non-comital shrug.

Bokuto grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him around. ‘Traitor!’ He wailed.

When Bokuto returned his attention to Tsukishima he’d already lost interest and was instead making an unspirited attempt to clean the thick goggles over his eyes. 

‘Please believe me.’ Said Bokuto, grabbing Tsukishima shaking him by the shoulders like he had done to Akaashi. ‘We did it, we really did, even if my traitor boyfriend won’t back me up. Tsukii-‘

‘Shut up.’ Tsukishima snapped, brushing Bokuto off. ‘You’re mistaking incredulity for actual investment.’

Bokuto cocked his head to the side and opened his mouth to ask a question.

‘He’s saying he doesn’t care.’ Akaashi commented, not bothering to turn around, leaving one half of his face shaded scarlet and the other completely shadowed.

Before Bokuto had an opportunity to express his indignation their attention was diverted to a trio of men exiting from the door that led into the heart of the complex. 

At the head of the trio was a small man, Hinata Shouyou, barely five foot four in height. Despite his small stature most everyone in the room found their initial gaze drawn to him. He walked with what verged on a jump to his step. He rocked onto and off of the balls of his feet constantly. Even at walk his energy level was almost explosive.

From there the collective gaze slipped onto the second figure, Kageyama Tobio, who had an expression more pointed than the bangs of his haircut. He lacked the sheer euphoria of the first man but the energy he exuded was no less intense. It was a dour seriousness that could be detected in the rigidness of his shoulders and the fact that his brows seemed to be fixed in a constant furrow. 

Finally everyones collective gaze would shift onto the third man, Takeda, whose calm demeanour provided much needed relief after the intensity of the first two.

Bokuto called out loudly and ran over to the trio, flapping his arms excitedly. 

Akaashi and Tsukishima picked themselves up and made their way over at a more idle speed. By the time they reached Bokuto he’d already finished administering hugs and had launched into a conversation with Hinata that was exuberant to the point that it bordered on frenetic.

‘Yeah Hinata.’ Bokuto said, puffing his chest. ‘I caught him.’

Hinata’s eyes glowed and he gasped loudly. Akaashi slapped Bokuto across the back of the head. The sound echoed around the room. 

‘Ok.’ Bokuto said rubbing the back of his head. ‘Akaashi may have helped.’

Akaashi slapped Bokuto again.

‘Ok. Ok. Akaashi saved my life.’ Akaashi drew his hand back. ‘Again.’ 

Takeda began to exchange pleasantries with Bokuto, Akaashi, and Tsukishima. While they talked Hinata began to bounce lightly on the balls of his feet. The pace of the bouncing increased until it looked like he was about to shake himself apart. Bokuto called a stop to the conversation to ask Hinata if he was ok.

‘I just think it’s so cool that you guys have each others back.’ Hinata exploded. ‘That’s so like ‘kwwwahhh’, cause, you know, you guys really care about each other. If it’d been me and Kageyama he probably would have let me die.’

‘Yes.’ Kageyama said.

Tsukishima snorted a laugh.

Hinata spun to give him an angry look which was returned with soft ‘tch.’

‘Tsuki, take your goggles off.’ Hinata chided. ‘They’re so filthy, how’re you meant to see anything?’

‘Believe me I’m glad I can’t see anything right now.’

‘Hey!’ Hinata cried.

Before Hinata could launch into a tirade Takeda interrupted and informed everyone that Bokuto, Akaashi, and Tsukishima did have an appointment to keep with Ukai. They agreed to meet later to watch the Kota matches. Hinata and Kageyama then left, while the others went further into the complex.

Takeda led them through a series of hallways. The path they took was lit in the same blue and reds of the ante-chamber the many halls and rooms that shot of like capillaries were clean and well lit. Everything about the complex seemed modern and beautiful and yet uncomfortable. It was too perfect, too clean, like lots perfume over a bad smell, the camouflage drew attention to the what was meant to be hidden. Many doors were locked and the ones that were open showed perfect rooms filled with crates marked ‘weapon’ and ‘hazardous’. The workers they passed had the same expressions as the scum in the ante-chamber. They all seemed brutish or cunning or born on the corner of the two.

Finally they reached a door, a large guard standing on either side. Both the guards wore drab ugly armour and were armed with rifles . Takeda exchanged a few brief words with the one of the left. That guard then unlocked the door, allowing them through, glaring as they passed.

They walked into an circular office. It was proportioned like the ante-chamber but with a ring of leather sofa’s instead of a pool. At the far end of the room stood a sturdy looking desk with a high backed chair behind it. Every part of the room from floors to ceiling to the matching artworks lining the walls, was painted in a severe monochrome. The only breaks in colour were the flowers on the table and the cut-like splashes of of paint on the artworks, both a red the same shade as blood.

‘Please sit.’ Said a man in a cheap looking suit. It was navy blue and on it’s lapel rested a rose that was a few shades off from the reds in the rest of the room.

He pointed at the sofas in the middle of the room. Bokuto, Akaashi, and Tsukishima sat down. 

He moved to join them, walking across the room in a gruff and mannerless way. The man was of a regular height, the most distinguishing feature was his dirty-blonde hair which was messily held back with a headband. He took a sofa for himself, Takeda standing behind him, letting the others share the second one.

He proceeded to roll himself a cigarette, taking his time. Everyone watched silently. Once it was rolled he asked for a light which Tsukishima provided. He raised it to his lips and took a long breath in, held it for several seconds, before exhaling it into the air.

He did this several more times.

The others waited.

After his fourth drag he lowered the cigarette and said. ‘Bokuto, Akaashi, good job with the bounty.’

‘Thank you Ukai.’ Bokuto beamed.

Akaashi nodded politely.

Ukai clicked his fingers and Takeda moved away to fetch something from the desk. ’As promised.’ He said. ‘The reward. Fifty thousand credits, cash.’  
`  
Takeda handed them a hefty metal case which he proceeded to unlock and open. Inside were hundreds of metallic chips, blue, red, and yellow in colour. Bokuto stared at their prize hungrily. Akaashi picked up a red one. It sounded like dense metal when tapped but when he threw it up it hung in the air before falling back into his hand.

Akaashi nodded, satisfied.

‘It was a pity you couldn’t catch them both.’ Ukai said, exhaling another plume of smoke. He watched them closely, his eyes cold.

Bokuto nodded. ‘A hundred thousand credits would have been nice, but he wasn’t there, if he was Akaashi would have spotted him.’

Ukai didn’t say anything.

The silence journeyed from the realms of comfortable into those of uneasiness

‘You know.’ Bokuto said, breaking the tension. ‘Because of his…’ He waved his hands over his eyes wildly, almost hitting Takeda in the face.

Ukai glanced at Akaashi. 

Akaashi stared back.

His eyes were silver, a cold lifeless colour that emphasise their artificial nature rather than hiding it. They were framed by vertical scars that ran from the top of his cheek to the middle of his brow, a straight line interrupted by his artificial eyes. It gave him constantly barbed expression.

Ukai’s quickly diverted his attention away from Akaashi.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ He said, waving his hand. ‘I only require one of them. You’ve done well boys.’

Bokuto and Akaashi thanked him.

‘Leave now.’

They stood and went, Takeda escorting them back out of the complex.

Tsukishima and Ukai remained.

The blonde pulled out another cigarette and quirked an eyebrow. Ukai nodded. Tsukishima lit it and placed it between his lips. They sat in silence for some time, both enjoying their vice. When Ukai finished his cigarette he leant over to the rose sitting on a nearby table and extinguished the flame on it.

‘He’s malfunctioning again.’ Ukai said.

‘Tadashi?’

‘Yeah.’

Tsukishima leant back and groaned.

‘Will you fix him?’

Tsukishima nodded.

‘Good.’ 

‘He wouldn’t break if you didn’t misuse him.’ Tsukishima said dryly.

Ukai ignored him. He stood and walked for the exit.

‘Follow me.’

Tsukishima was led from Ukai’s office and back through the complex. It was a long constant descent. By the time Ukai stopped outside a heavyset metal door they must have been three of four floors below ground level.

Ukai used a small key unlock the door.

It swung slowly, the hinges moaning.

Inside was a dusty grey cell. The only source of light a flickering fluorescent bulb that was too bright when it was on but when it was off left the room in a suffocating darkness. There were three people in the room; a man chained to the wall, an android, and a seated guard minding the android.

The android looked short next to Tsukishima yet it was almost six feet tall. 

It was black and thin but made out of a sturdy metal that made it far stronger than most humans. It’s had veins of orange eco that ran down both it’s sides and the third arm that protruded from it’s back. Instead of a hand, the extra arm was equiped with a range of medical tools that were mounted on a machine similar to the cylinder of a revolver. This allowed the android to rotate between tools easily.

The android had an audio unit shaped like a soft grin and two visual receivers that were wide and doe like. It also possessed a number of ventilation holes across the front of it’s face, that looked much like freckles when eco shone through. 

And it was the eco that revealed the unique nature of the android.

Because while the veins running down the side were orange, the eco that shone through the eyes, mouth, and freckle-like ventilation ports were green. This meant that not only did the android have a very unstable dual core powering it, but the green eco made it capable of independent thought and learning.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Tsukishima asked.

The guard shrugged and continued went back to polishing his gun.

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and turned to address the android directly.

‘Tadashi?’

The top half of the android rotated to face Tsukishima. ’Hell- Hell- Hell-o. I- I- I- I am. Med- Med Med-‘

‘Stop.’ Tsukishima commanded.

Tadashi cut off mid-sentence.

Tsukishima went round behind the android, opened a panel in the back of his head and began to inspect his interior.

Tiny orange and green cables snaked around the inside of Tadashi’s head, connecting one data-point to another. Little glowing dots were being fired up and down these lines, as commands were sent and received and redistributed around the androids body. And in the centre of it all, cradled in metal and eco hub, was the twin eco core.

Tadashi’s brain.

There are six colours of eco, each with it’s own unique properties. Most androids function on orange eco. Orange eco can transmit, receive, and translate any energy signal or information signature making it a perfect natural computation unit. Tadashi however also used green eco or ‘bio’ eco in his core. Green eco shares a ninety eight percent similarity with all bio organism and as such can both mimic it’s properties and interact with other bio matter.

The combination of a green and orange core gave Tadashi a literal eco brain.

‘I see the problem.’ Tsukishima said. ‘His vocal systems bypassed themselves.’

He reached into the back of Tadashi’s head and began to tinker with something.

‘Can you fix it?’ Ukai asked impatiently.

Tsukishima pulled and hand out and closed Tadashi’s head. He wiped his hands, smiling condescendingly.

‘Already have.’ He turned to Tadashi. ‘Say hello Tadashi.’

‘H-hello Tadashi.’ Tadashi said.

Ukai barked out a laugh and slapped Tsukishima on the back. The blonde cringed.

‘Excellent.’ He said, hitting Tsukishima again. ‘Excellent. You couldn’t have fixed his speech though?’

Tsukishima gave him a derisive glare.

Ukai sighed and threw his hands up. To fix Tadashi’s voice they’d have to reset his entire program which includes deleting his memory. Ukai’s only real value for the android was due to it’s current medical knowledge, without it Tadashi was no better than any of his other androids.

Tadashi spun to face Tsukishima. ‘Y-you wouldn’t reset m-me if he a-asked, would you Kei?’

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and made a small ‘tch’ sound.

Tadashi nodded slowly, cautiously. ’T-thank you Kei. O-once again you have proven yourself to b-be a good friend.’ Tadashi reached down and opened his arms. ‘My f-files show that h-humans often give hugs to show friendship. M-may I?’

Tsukishima took a big step back

‘No thanks.’ He mumbled.

Tadashi lowered his arms, their motors making a sad moan as they did.

‘I’ll be going now.’ Tsukishima said.

He gave Tadashi one more quick glance and nodded. He then turned to leave but before he could the guard stepped in front of the door. Tsukishima huffed and tried to sidestep him, but the guard wouldn’t let him pass. He turned and raised and glared at Ukai who was now smoking another cigarette.

‘C-cigarettes can prove d-detrimental to one’s hea-‘ Tadashi began, raising a hand.

Ukai waved a hand in the Androids face to shut him up. Tadashi lowered his hand. He returned his attention to Tsukishima who was now tapping his foot.

Ukai said. ’I need you to stay.’

Tsukishima rose an eyebrow.

‘To make sure he doesn’t break.’ Ukai said matter-of-factly.

Tsukishima looked at Tadashi, who was looking at his metal feet. Ukai continued to smoke his cigarette. Tsukishima furrowed his brow, sighed, then threw his hands up.

‘Fine. But I’m charging double.’

Tsukishima ambled over to the wall farthest from the prisoner and leant against it lighting a cigarette of his own. Tadashi went to inform him of the health detriments of smoking but Tsukishima cut him off before he could finish the first syllable.

As Ukai informed Tadashi of how this interrogation was going to work Tsukishima looked at the prisoner properly.

The prisoner was shirtless and suspended by the arms with two chains, metal not eco, and he looked unconscious. He was tan and extremely muscular, but had many scars on his body as well as a blue-purple bruise blooming on his cheek. Most of the scars were white and faded, but there was a raw pink one on his shoulder

Tsukishima leant forward.

He looked at the scars closely, like a man trying to decipher a code. He assessed each scar and how they might have gotten there. He started with the newest one on the shoulder before drifting across one on his chest, then down over the one on his side, and then to the three on his prominent abs. Tsukishima studied them like a scholar, totally enraptured in the stories the scars might have been telling. He moved onto the one which started near his belly button but drifted down to the left and straight past his visible tan-line.

Tsukishima’s eyes shot back up as his face reddened. 

He looked at the others, nobody seemed to have noticed.

Tsukishima stole one more glance at the prisoner. He was awake and grinning at him. Tsukishima lips tightened. He adjusted his tinted goggles and made a soft ‘tch’.

‘Ready to start Tadashi?’ Ukai asked.

Tadashi said. ‘I-I would rather not, I am a m-medical android, not-‘

Ukai slammed his cigarette onto the ground. ‘I’m not asking what you are or aren’t, I’m asking if you’re ready you stupid piece of garbage.’

Tadashi pulled back timidly, raising his three arms in defence.

‘Are you ready?’ Ukai demanded.

Tadashi nodded reluctantly.

‘Good.’ Ukai snapped.

He walked over to the prisoner.

‘You.’ Ukai said. ‘I’m going to ask you some questions and if I don’t get the answer I want I’ll have Tadashi hurt you.’

The prisoner didn’t say anything.

‘Lets start.’ Ukai said. ‘What’s your name.’

The prisoner cocked his head to the side and regarded Tsukishima through his mess of black hair. He grinned. It was a sly, provocative grin.

‘Hi.’ He said.

Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

‘I’m Kuroo Tetsuro.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhh, why must I make everyone mean to poor Tadashi? He is but a nice android doin' his gosh darn best.  
> Thank you for reading people! Please kudos and comments, I want to keep making this better so any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm also aware that I'm dropping a lot of names and information about the universe, I'm keeping a glossary and will answer any questions you have about it.  
> Also sorry to Kenma fans, I know I promised him along with all the other characters, but this chapter was so long that I had to split it :P
> 
> Next Chapter brought to you by: Cage fighting and chill (with friends), Kenma making his late arrival, and Tsukishima being the eternal salt king because Kuroo is just so fucking extra
> 
> Other Notes:  
> -I'm currently in need of a Beta reader, so if you would like to offer your services please contact me via comment or message.  
> -Also, I have a Tumblr, it's mostly reblogged movie stuff but I'm also gonna post this fic there too. Follow me at yet-another-blogger if you are so inclined.


	3. Blood and Mud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We experience the same day as the last chapter but instead we follow Hinata. It's a day that goes from bad to worse to unforeseeably horrific.
> 
> I suppose that there should also be a warning here. There's some graphic depiction of violence from "Akaashi nodded, his eye were never wrong" too "'Oh my-' Hinata began". It's not a long bit of the story but the violence is pretty full on.

The Crow painted lines of blue across the dark.

This effect was the result of the quartet of eco engines mounted at the rear of the ship on retractable struts that stuck out like the points of a compass. 

The ship had a bullet for a body. It was painted black with orange trimmings. When it moved at a high speed it disappeared almost completely, the black blending with the expanse while the oranges blurred into thin comet tails that ran alongside the blues of the engine. 

When the ship twisted the two trails would weave together.

Upon close inspection one would see that the ship, while sleek, was actually made up of many generations of space craft parts. The trio of dome-mounted turrets halfway down the body of the ship were fitted with three different generations of eco-canons. Similarly the orange crow symbol on the side appeared to be new whilst the inscription ‘The Crow’, painted underneath, was more faded.

The pilots Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio sat in the cockpit in the ships nose. It was a small room, dark, with just enough space for the chairs and consoles. Their instruments glowed in soft, reds, yellows, and greens, neon parallels of the star-scape visible through the ceiling to floor window in front of them. It was a crystal eye at the tapered front of the Crow, the neon lights creating a kaleidoscopic iris.

Hinata sat with his feet up on the dash, rambling at Kageyama about the upcoming Kota prizefight. Kageyama let Hinata monologue and would only respond with an occasional gruff remark or question. He kept a hand on the steering vein at all times. Intermittently they would check the readings their consoles were showing to each other. They would flick a switch or turn a dial to adjust the readings that were out. Once everything was level again Hinata would return to rambling and Kageyama to listening.

A small red light began to flash on Kageyama console. He pressed the corresponding button and words appeared on a small screen underneath. 

It displayed “Hinata” next to the words “Calling”.

Kageyama punched Hinata in his side, stopping his monologue mid sentence. 

’Dumbass.’ He said before Hinata could protest. ‘You’ve got a call.’

Hinata’s frowned. ’Put through in the common room.’

Kageyama pressed another button on his console.

Hinata left the cockpit quickly and made his way out into the larger adjacent room.

The common room was read like a place that read like someone had tried make cosy and had given up halfway. The walls were unpainted and had rust growing across them like a cancerous growth. A couple of weathered sofas and an metal table surrounded by a handful of mismatched plastic chairs were scattered around with no real sense of design. A small kitchenette occupied a spot between two rust growths, it’s sink was piled with unwashed dishes. 

A large computer bank dominated the opposite wall. A large crack ran through the screens centre.

Hinata walked over and pressed an orange blinking button. 

The screen flickered on. It displayed the picture of a small girl whose orange pig-tailed hair was seconded in brightness only by the smile on her face. Shouyou matched this smile with equal ambience the moment he saw her face.

‘Shoubro!’ The small girl cried out loudly.

‘Natsu!’ He shouted back.

She giggled loudly. 

Shouyou muffled a sigh in his hands. 

He leant forward slightly in his chair, moving his face even closer to the screen.

‘How’re you?’ Natsu asked between giggles.

Shouyou feigned sadness. ’I was doing great…’ He said. Natsu’s expression sank.

‘But…?’ She prompted, her smile demising quickly.

Hinata gave a long sigh, Natsu began to look worried. ‘But…I’m doing even better now that I’m talking to you.’ He broke back out into a wide grin.

‘Mean.’ Natsu said, smiling also. ‘You tricked me.’

‘And you fell for it.’ Hinata taunted.

Natsu stuck her tongue out. Hinata retaliated with his own.

Hinata enquired as to how Natsu was going and she launched into a lengthy explanation of everything that had happened since the last time they had spoken. Hinata let her monologue, agreeing and frowning at the correct moments. His massive grin didn’t falter for a moment. 

After several minutes she stopped allowing Hinata to get a word in.

‘Is mom there?’ He asked.

Natsu looked somewhere off screen. She cocked her head to the side questioningly. 

Hinata’s breath hitched. He tightened both of his hands into fists.

Natsu returned her attention to the camera, her face solemn, the crack across the screen adding to this appearance. She shook her head.

‘She doesn’t want to talk to you.’

Hinata nodded, his smile fell. He pushed his fists against the console. 

’When’re you coming home?’ Natsu asked.

Hinata sighed. Rubbed his brow. 

He looked at Natsu, her brown eyes wide. She looked like she already knew what the answer to the question was going to be but was trying to be hopeful. Hinata had promised her that he would only need to be gone for a month. 

That was a year and half ago. 

Like many promises, it was the sort that was destined to be broken.

‘Soon.’ He said. ‘I promise.’

‘Pinky promise?’ Natsu asked, raising her little finger.

Hinata raised his little finger. ‘Pinky promise.’

Natsu grinned a little, Hinata mustered the best he could in return.

‘Mom says I have to go now.’ She said. ‘Bye bye Shoubro.’

The screen cut to black. Natsu’s face disappeared and replaced by Hinata’s own reflection on the cracked screen.

Hinata rested his head on the computer console and let out a protracted groan. Tears amassed in the corner of his eyes and threatened to spill over. Hinata fought against them, letting out another groan which evolved into an angry scream.

He punched the monitor. The crack across it grew a little more. 

‘You ok?’

Hinata jumped in his chair. He quickly span to face Kageyama, who was standing in the doorway. Hinata straightened his back and pulled a toothy smile onto his face. 

He nodded. It was a stiff nod.

Kageyama shrugged. ‘Get in here. We’re about to land.’

Kageyama returned to the cockpit.

Hinata watched him go. 

The grin fell from his face the moment Kageyama was out of sight.

…

Workers for the Ukai Crime Syndicate unloaded The Crow. 

Blue eco repulsers were being attached to the corners of each crate. When they were activated the crate would be lifted two feet off the ground by waves of blue eco that emanated from the repulsers. The crates were then escorted by a single worker off the ship out the hanger door and out onto a large spinner outside. Each crate was checked off by a worker and inspected to make certain that none of them had been opened or tampered with.

While the workers laboured Hinata and Kageyama did a routine check of the ship, moving through the interior and across the exterior with clipboards in hand.

Hinata and Kageyama clambered on the roof of the ship to inspect the now retracted engines. 

Kageyama moved efficiently, checking items off with brisk ticks. Hinata struggled to keep up. His eyes were distant, drifting around without settling long enough to focus on anything properly. Hinata found himself constantly losing track of what he was doing, much to the annoyance of Kageyama who ultimately snatched the clipboard away with a chastising comment and sent him to sit out of the way.

Hinata sat himself at the end of the ship and watched as the workers walked directly underneath him. They moved the cargo out of the hold that comprised the end third of the ship, the black crates sliding easily over the ground. He noted how they did the exact same job as him, just theirs was more manual, while his involved piloting a ship.

Distance and method.

The only delineations.

Hinata angrily slammed his pencil down on the checklist. It bounced out of his hands and off the ship. 

‘Shit.’ Hinata muttered to himself.

He gave his brow a ginger rub.

‘Hey.’ A voice called from below.

Hinata snapped his attention back to the workers. 

He spotted the owner of the voice, Takeda. A small group stood behind the bespectacled man. Two guards, in between them a man with messy black hair. Behind them a thin black android with orange eco glowing from its sides, Tadashi. They had just come in through the main hanger door.

Takeda waved at him. ‘Hey Hinata. You and Kageyama get down here.’

Hinata forced a wide grin. ‘Hey Takeda we’ll be down in a moment.’ He said, waving back.

He called to Kageyama. The two leapt down from The Crow and ran to join the group. Hinata took long leaping steps that allowed him to cover the hanger in a matter of seconds.

‘Good job with the delivery.’ Takeda said, smiling a little.

Kageyama didn’t say anything.

Hinata shrugged. ‘It was a quite trip, we only saw two other ships the whole time.’ He looked over the rest of the group. 

Hinata’s gaze lingering on the man with the mussed hair. He cocked his head to the side. The man stared back. His eyes were cat-like, as if he was constantly calculating and scheming. Hinata shrank back slightly.

‘Shrimpy.’ He said, grinning toothily.

He received a punch from the guards the moment he spoke.

‘Who is that?’ Kageyama asked.

‘Bokuto and Akaashi brought him in an hour ago.’ Takeda supplied. ‘Just a low life that Ukai put bounty on.’ He began to leave, beckoning Hinata and Kageyama to come with him.

‘What’d he do?’ Said Hinata.

Takeda responded with an apologetic shrug. Hinata nodded understandingly.

Takeda noticed that Tadashi hadn’t followed the group. Instead he was loitering in the hanger, looking curiously at the boxes as the glided by. Takeda called out to the android and was ignored. In response he pulled out a small device from a pouch on his belt. The moment Tadashi saw it he raised his hands pleadingly. Takeda pressed the button. 

Tadashi froze mid action.

Takeda walked over to him and began to reprimand him.

‘I-I am s-sorry.' Tadashi said. 'I-it is m-my programming.'

Takeda sighed. 'I know, just please try not to.'

Takeda lead them out into the grounds of the Headquarters for the Ukai Crime Syndicate. The entire enclosure had a grim aura. It was a collection of dull grey buildings, hangers and warehouse mostly, at the centre of which, like the sun at the centre of a solar system, sat the main complex. It was leviathan structure, ugly and multi-storied with a multitude of off-shooting corridors and rooms that had obviously been added over time. 

As they were walking Tadashi attempted to assure everyone that he was trying not to be a problem. 

Takeda cut him off before he could finish the first sentence.

‘Look.’ He said. ‘I’m really sorry Tadashi, I don’t want to. But you don’t give me a choice.’

‘I-I u-u-unders-stand.’ Tadashi replied.

The prisoner attempted to say something but was cut off with a punch to the face from one of the guards. He held up both of his hands warily at Takeda. The bespectacled man nodded, allowing the prisoner to speak.

‘I was just going to say.’ He stopped to spit out a mouthful of phlegm and blood. ‘That your android doesn’t sound too healthy.’

Takeda dismissed the comment with a quick wave of his hand.

‘Actually he does sound jumpier than usual.’ Hinata turned to face Tadashi directly. ‘You ok buddy?’

Tadashi nodded slowly, the motors in his neck softly ticking over.

‘Y-y-yes H-Hinata Sh-Shouyou.’ Tadashi said.

‘You sure?’

Tadashi affirmed that he was certain.

The group continued to walk. They passed a pair of bored looking guards.

‘A-and h-how’re y-you, H-Hinata Sh-Shouyou? I-I t-think t-there m-may be something w-wrong. M-my scanner a-are d-detecting high l-levels o-of Serotonin w-which i-indicates y-you m-may be un-hap-’

Hinata smiled brightly. ‘I just woke up on the wrong side of my bed this morning.’ 

Tadashi’s didn’t respond. 

He stared at Hinata intently. 

Hinata looked around at everyone. 

They all looked back at him uncertainly, casting furtive glances at Tadashi. Hinata looked back at Tadashi. His brown eyes met Tadashi’s green eco eyes for a moment. 

He looked away again.

‘This is awkward.’ The prisoner commented.

A guard punched him again.

Tadashi broke his stare to comment that the prisoner was injured. 

The prisoner responded in a manner that was both sarcastic and profane.

Takeda escorted them through a small door on the side of the main complex. He then began to lead the group through the identical twisting corridors.

‘Why did you need to talk to us?’ Kageyama asked.

Takeda said. ‘I don’t. Ukai does.’

‘About what?’ Hinata pressed.

‘I’ll let him explain.’ Takeda said. ‘We’re nearly there anyway.’

They stopped at a hallway juncture. Takeda instructed that the guards take the prisoner down the underground cells and that Tadashi was to go with them. It was at this point that Tadashi began to malfunction.

‘I-I- S-S-orry. N-n- w-w-an- b-b p-p-a-i-i-n.’

Takeda pulled the radio from his belt with a drawn out sigh and instructed that someone go get Tsukishima. The guards escorted the prisoner and malfunctioning Tadashi away. Takeda muttered an inaudible comment as they left. He then led Hinata and Kageyama through another series of halls until they reached a door guarded by a pair of large guards. 

The guards glared at Hinata and Kageyama as they passed into Ukai’s monochromatic office.

Ukai sat at his desk looking over a stack of papers with one hand and twirling a blood red rose in his other. He looked up when he heard them enter.

‘Ah boys.’ He exclaimed with a rough voice. ‘Come.’ He waved his hand at the pair of chairs in front of the desk.

They sat down at the desk.

Ukai lit a cigarette, Hinata and Kageyama waited. He took several long draws before he spoke. He asked them about how the trip went. Kageyama launched into a brief explanation, telling the details of the non-event. Ukai nodded thoughtfully as he talked.

‘Federation?’ Ukai asked.

Kageyama shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He straightened up his jacket. It was an old black thing with red and white trimmings. He began to rub at the shoulder where the Federation flag had been stitched and restricted on. Unlike the rest of jacket the flag had been cleaned meticulously.

Hinata spoke up. ‘Not a single ship.’

Ukai nodded. He took another long drag, breathing the smoke out lazily. Hinata looked around at the artworks that lined the walls. They were all white, black lines painted over sharply. They were abstract, the lines of black could have been a winter forest or an industrial landscape.

Hinata saw raindrops running down a window.

‘How was it on Miyagi?’ Ukai asked casually. 

He stared at them while he waited for an answer.

‘Not good.’ Hinata replied honestly. ‘I don’t think they’ve managed to take back any of the mine.’

‘The shipment was small.’ Kageyama added.

Ukai nodded. He beckoned Takeda over and they had a quick muttered conversation. Takeda pointed to a paper on Ukai’s desk, Ukai nodded. Hinata couldn’t read it upside down, but he could tell it was a three columns of figures. Ukai and Takeda finished their muttered conversation and returned their attention to Hinata and Kageyama.

‘Well boys.’ Ukai said, extinguishing his cigarette in an overflowing ash tray. ‘I need to make a quick call to our associates in Miyagi. Takeda will show you out.’

Takeda stood and led the way.

‘Bokuto, Akaashi, and Tsukishima should be waiting in the ante-chamber by now.’ He said to them.

Hinata grinned at the news, a bounce returning to his step.

As they left the office Kageyama cast a glance behind himself. The door was swinging shut, but just before it did he saw Ukai sitting at his desk grinning. Kageyama frowned, the news about Miyagi hand’t been good.

The door shut before he could see anything else.

…

Kageyama, Hinata, Bokuto, and Akaashi sat around a small table out the front of a greasy looking diner. It was located on the main street of the Miyagi Space Port. At one far end of the street stood Ukai’s complex. Even from a distance it looked malevolent, it loomed over the surrounding area, seeming to draw in shadow and repel light.

At the other end of the street was the Kota Arena. It was a massive colosseum, a dozen stories high and lined with hundreds of arched windows, each of which was illuminated with a thick yellow light that was growing in strength as the sun set over the town.

The two buildings marked the edges of the town, counterpointing each other, creating a space for all the other buildings to fall into. The rest of the town was made up of manufactories whose chimneys let out columns of smoke that blackened the sides of the tenement houses around them. 

The group watched the street from their table. People bustled up and down the cracked concrete path, bumping into each other constantly. They fought for room around the spinners, which slunk up and down the street.

Many of the people were manufactory workers. Their blue jumpsuits and with blackened faces made them easy to spot in between the masses of pilots, mercenaries, assassins, thugs, bounty hunters, and low lives. Some of the workers were men, others women, but the majority children. Most walked toward the south end of the street, where they would then dart east and toward the slums, which were located at the cliffs that marked the edge of town.

 

‘So who’d you guys bet on for the match?’ Hinata asked, picking up a small piece of food from one the plates that covered the table. 

‘Aone.’ Everyone replied in unison.

Hinata blanched. ’What? Why?’

‘Because he will win.’ Akaashi said matter of factly.

‘Dumbass.’ Kageyama added.

Akaashi rolled his eyes. Kageyama glowered in response.

The others ignored the exchange.

Hinata launched into a long winded explanation as to why he thought the little giant’s victory was all but predetermined. As he rambled Kageyama began to pick individual chips off a large platter in the centre of the table. Akaashi leant onto Bokuto’s shoulder, they shared a glassy expression in the face of Hinata’s verbal onslaught.

‘So there.’ Hinata finished.

Akaashi blinked himself back into the moment.

‘You’re still wrong.’ Akaashi said.

Hinata took an angry breath, his cheeks inflated.

‘Why’s he wrong this time?’ A voice called.

The voice belonged to Tsukishima, who was making his way of the street. He ducked between two spinners, one large and black the other a garish red, skirted around a group of prostitutes, and jumped the broken railing separating the footpath from the road. 

He took the vacant seat between Bokuto and Kageyama rather than the other one between Hinata and Akaashi.

He got out a cigarette.

‘Who’d you bet on for the Kota match?’ Hinata asked quickly, trying to speak up before the others could.

‘Aone.’ Tsukishima said automatically, still trying to get his lighter to work. ‘Obviously.’

‘But why?’ Hinata said.

‘Because he’s going to win.’

Hinata went to reiterate his reasoning for a Little Giant win to Tsukishima. But the blonde interrupted him by waving the still unlit cigarette in his. Hinata blinked, taken aback. Tsukishima explained that he didn’t care.

Hinata drank from his cup aggressively. ’Well you’re all wrong.’

‘Believing in something won’t make it true.’ Tsukishima said.

‘And what would you know?’ Hinata countered.

Tsukishima’s lighter finally sparked into life. He lit his cigarette and looked at it for a moment, observing the now smoking tip through his dark-tinted goggles. He placed it in his mouth, snapped the lighter shut and pocketed it.

He then returned his attention to the conversation.

He said. ‘Just look at what happened to the Resistance. They believed the could overthrow the Federation. Look where that got them.’

‘The resistance isn’t dead though.’ Bokuto pointed out.

‘They’re defiantly dying.’ Akaashi said.

Akaashi nuzzled his head against Bokuto’s shoulder. Bokuto smiled and the scratched the top of Akaashi’s head with his free hand. Tsukishima rolled his eyes and looked away from the pair. His gaze fell on Hinata and Kageyama, he looked away from them too. He settled his focus on the food in front of him.

Tsukishima exhaled a breath of smoke. ’In their dying breaths.’ He finished.

‘Good riddance.’ Kageyama mumbled.

He adjusted the shoulders of his jacket.

‘They were- are good people.’ Hinata defended. ‘You can’t judge a person without knowing them first.’

He looked around the table imploringly. Tsukishima was distracting himself with a chip, spinning it between two fingers casually. Bokuto was still scratching Akaashi’s head, the two of them following the conversation, but clearly disinterested in it’s outcome.

‘They were all fools.’ Kageyama said.

Bokuto cocked his head to the side. ’Why?’ He asked. ‘It looked like they were going to win the war for a bit there.’

Akaashi sat up a little. His brow and mouth both tightened.

‘But what were they going to replace the current government with?’ Akaashi replied. ‘You need a plan for how to fill the power vacuum.’

‘Exactly.’ said Kageyama.

Akaashi shot Kageyama a terse expression, the scars around his eyes only exacerbating the hostility.

’Just because I think the Resistance lacked a plan doesn’t mean I like the Federation.’ Akaashi countered. ‘I still think they’re amoral.’

Akaashi leant forward abruptly. He curled his hands into fists.

‘But what is moral?’ Tsukishima asked.

‘Oh I don’t know.’ Akaashi sniped. ‘A government that doesn’t condone slavery for example.’

Akaashi began to rub as his scars and his shoulders.

‘So what would you replace it with?’ Tsukishima asked.

Akaashi rubbed harder at his scars. He clamped his eyes shut and drew a strained breath, clenching his hands with each inhale and unclenched on the exhale. Bokuto pulled Akaashi’s hands away from his eyes and rubbed small rings in them with his thumb. He whispered ‘it’s ok’ into his ear, almost inaudible. Akaashi opened his eyes again and took another breath.

The conversation had continued without them. Hinata had began a highly values driven argument that Tsukishima was shooting down at every turn with basic facts. 

‘Lets just talk about something lighter.’ Bokuto interrupted.

Hinata and Bokuto began to discuss their recent off-world expeditions. They both explained at length the exact specifics of their trips, flapping their arms wildly and nodding along with each others stories.

While they were talked Bokuto kept one hand on top of Akaashi’s. He glanced to side frequently. Bokuto was well aware of how tough Akaashi was, and because of this he could forget how quickly that could all come apart. Bokuto offered Akaashi a small smile, which he returned. It was little more than a tug at the ends of his mouth. 

Bokuto’s grin widened.

‘What’d you guys think about the guy you caught?’ Hinata asked. ‘He scared me. And he called me Shrimpy which is so rude.’

Tsukishima snorted a laugh.

Hinata made to hit him but Tsukishima dodged it easily.

‘Well what’d you think about him?’ Hinata demanded.

Tsukishima stopped. He starred at something across the street, his exact focus obscured by his goggles. He starred for several seconds, an vacant expression on his face.

He returned to the present with a quick blink. ‘He annoyed me. Everything about him seemed loud, rude, arrogant, obnoxious, proud.’ He said, listing off his fingers. ‘Didn’t like him at all.’ He concluded.

The others fell silent for a moment. They stared at Tsukishima who stared at the smoke rising from the cigarette in his hands. Everyone tried to formulate the words to correctly express their shock at Tsukishima’s sudden outburst but failed.

Finally Bokuto said. ‘Oh.’ And then. ‘I see.’

Tsukishima provided a nonchalant shrug in response.

The conversation continued for a while longer. Hinata and Tsukishima did most of the talking, engaging in near constant verbal swordplay which Hinata inevitably lost. Bokuto would occasionally chime in with a comment but he focused mostly on Akaashi, who leant on his shoulder quietly.

After a while Kageyama pointed out that people were starting to move toward the arena. They paid the owner, Hinata leaving a substantial tip, and then they left for the Kota match.

…

‘I can’t believe he lost.’ Hinata wailed.

A reptile face woman and two dwarfs looked over at Hinata, but otherwise everyone ignored his outburst and focused on leaving the Kota Arena. Tsukishima gave Hinata a foul look. Hinata was too enamoured with his own woes to notice. They were both perched on a small island, hanging off an old lamp which illuminated the passing crowd with a yellow glow. Hinata let out another long wail. Tsukishima responded by telling him to shut it. They exchanged a round of immature insults before returning to haughty silence, both believing that they had won the exchange.

They searched through the sea of people looking for the other three. Akaashi and Bokuto were nearly missed between two waves of Aone fans. Their matching black and white outfits blending with the white and teal of Aone fans. They would have been missed completely had it not been for Tsukishima noticing the especially loud hooting sound Bokuto made. Bokuto leapt up onto the island, and assisted his partner up a moment later.

The quartet then searched around for Kageyama. This search was remarkably quicker as Akaashi was able to scan over the cyborgs, hybrids, grubby pilots, gangsters with their android assistants, and spot Kageyama within a second. He pointed him out to the others. Bokuto and Hinata began to call loudly for him while Akaashi and Tsukishima glowered at the attention that was being drawn to them.

Once Kageyama had joined them from his spot next to trash cans the entered into a shouted discussion.

‘Can we get a lift with you Tsuki?’ Bokuto asked.

Tsukishima nodded.

‘Thanks.’ Bokuto said. ‘Hey hey hey Akaashi, we don’t have to walk.’

Bokuto began to hoot proudly. Akaashi almost grinned at Bokuto’s antics.

‘I’m already regretting this decision.’ Tsukishima said dryly. He looked over at Hinata and Kageyama. ‘I suppose I should offer you guys a lift, but I won’t.’

Kageyama shrugged and said that he only lived a few streets away. 

Hinata however began to huff angrily and commented that he didn’t want a lift anyway.

‘My backs hurting a bit.’ Akaashi said.

Hinata’s interest piqued at this.

‘I’ve got a cream you could use.’ He said. ‘It’s this new artificial muscle meld stuff that Ukai stole a while back, it’s really good, I’ll lend it too you.’

Akaashi enquired that it wouldn’t be a problem for Hinata and the ginger assured him that it wouldn’t be.

‘I can give you a ride back to yours too.’ Hinata added. ‘I’ve left my jump-cycle there.’

The groups then parted, Bokuto and Tsukishima heading to north, Kageyama to the west, Hinata and Akaashi moving toward the north-east of town.

The crowd dispersed quickly, most people who lived on the east side couldn’t afford the Kota matches. The street-lights dispersed equally quickly, growing from every ten twenty feet apart, to forty, fifty, sixty, to a hundred. Soon Hinata and Akaashi were darting from island of light to another, crossing through oceans of darkness. The weather had fowled whilst they’d been at the match and as Hinata and Akaashi walked a light drizzle began. Akaashi made a brooding comment about it. 

He kept a hand on his eco-bow at all times, eyes darted around, scanning alleys and windows. 

A few windows were illuminated. 

Most were not.

They were approaching a bridge close to Hinata’s tenement building when Akaashi suddenly threw his hand out in front of Hinata. They both stopped. Akaashi pointed ahead. Hinata squinted and then realised what he was seeing.

Two men were on the bridge, standing in the island of light created by the single light above them. 

One man stood with his hands up. He seemed to be begging. 

The other stood partially in the darkness, but the tendrils of dark eco that had grown from his back could easily be made out.

Akaashi focused on the aggressor, his face was mostly obscured but he could still make out enough distinguishing features. He recognised the soft face, the cat ears, and the hair that was shaded like pudding, dark at the top, but light on the bangs.

Akaashi realised who it was before his eyes had even finished their facial scan.

‘Kozume…’ He whispered.

Kozume seemed to be talking, but he was at the wrong angle for Akaashi to make out what he was saying.

Akaashi turned slightly to observe who the other man was, but before he got the chance Kozume attacked.

The tendrils of dark eco lashed out like vipers. The man cried out once before he struck the other several times. With each impact the man to stumbled backwards, until he was forced against the railing.

He was hit again. The weight of the impact broke the railing with a creak and snap. 

He fell silently, a soft thud punctuating the end of his fall.

Everything was silent.

Hinata broke the silence with a cry of. ’Hey.’

Kozume’s head snapped to face them. His eyes went wide like a cat caught in headlights and he ran, slinking into the darkness and disappeared. Akaashi raised his eco-bow and tried to line up Kozume in his crosshairs but he was gone before he ever got a shot off.

Instead he and Hinata ran to the edge of the bridge, looked over and spotted the body. It had landed in the mud, both arms twisted and odd angles and one leg snapped in two places. Hinata and Akaashi shimmied down the embankment. The rain made the mud slippery and difficult to get a grip on, Akaashi almost slipped twice. By the time they reached the bottom they were both splattered with mud.

They rushed over to the body to investigate who it was. When they saw the face they were stopped in their tracks.

‘Is that…’ Hinata asked, placing his hand over his mouth in shock.

Akaashi nodded, his eyes were never wrong.

Takeda’s body was a wreck. Two holes had been punched in his chest by the dark eco, his blood ran out from them and mixed with the mud. He’d taken another hit to each arm. The skin where the dark eco had hit was dark and wrinkled, like someone had cut of the circulation of blood and the area had just withered and died.

But none of this compared to the face. It was barely recognisable. His teeth were all destroyed. Some were reduced to stumps but most were gone, either in the mud around his body, or lodged somewhere down his throat. He’d taken major blow to his jaw. It was completely disconnected. The skin had torn on the right side so his jaw hung entirely on the left held on only by a small amount of skin like fraying fabric.

The glasses that he’d always worn were completely smashed, located on and around his body in five separate pieces, one of which was in the bloody pulp that had once been his left eye. His right eye was still open though, staring vacantly at the storm clouds above.

‘Oh my-’ Hinata began.

Before he got a chance to finished a voice called from above them, telling them to freeze. A group of Ukai’s stood at the edge of the bridge, where the railing had broken. They shone a light down on Akaashi and Hinata, blinding the two momentarily.

‘Do not move.’ One called. ‘If you do we’ll be forced to apprehend you with severe force.’

Hinata gave Akaashi a panicked glance.

‘We didn’t do this.’ Akaashi called up.

One of the thugs scoffed. ‘We’ve caught you over the body.’

Akaashi looked back at Hinata. His face was as white as Akaashi imagined his own to be. Hinata’s raised an eyebrow. His eyes were uncertain, darting from Akaashi’s face, to the thugs, and then down the muddy causeway away from them.

Akaashi nodded.

‘You have to the count of five to drop your we-‘ The thug began.

He cut himself off when Akaashi and Hinata ran.

‘Stop them.’ The thug called.

A hail of green eco bolts torn up the mud around Akaashi and Hinata. Akaashi considered returning fire but decided against it, instead he focused on keeping up with Hinata, who was already several feet ahead of him.

A sound caught both their attentions. They looked back at the bridge to see a pair of jump-cycles drop off the bridge and down into the muddy causeway. 

The cycles hand thin an insect-like bodies that hovered a foot off the ground. In the place of eyes their were lights that shone a hellish red. Their engines were a vicious buzzing sound, like a million insects amplified and then put on repeat.

The guards urged their rides onwards, firing at Hinata and Akaashi as they closed in.

Hinata and Akaashi took the first turn available to them, a left into another capillary of he causeway.

It lead to a dead end.

A ten foot high wall that was smooth and rain soaked.

Hinata and Akaashi looked around for another option but their was none. They could hear the sounds of the thugs jump-cycles closing in, they had seconds only.

They exchanged a quick glance, Akaashi nodded at Hinata who nodded in return.

Hint took a few step back and then ran at the wall, leaping as high into the air as he could. He slammed hard against the concrete but managed to grab a hold of the top with his fingertips. He pulled himself up quickly, every muscle in his body screaming as he pushed them to move quicker, to escape faster.

He crawled over the top and turned around only to see that the thugs had just come round the corner and were firing down at Akaashi.

Akaashi didn’t look back, he knew there wasn’t time. He ran at the wall, went to jump from Hinata’s outstretched hands. He was five feet away, four, three, two, he jumped, felt his feet lift the air, one, his hands were inches away from Hinata’s.

And thats when he was hit.

A bolt of green eco struck him in the back and he fell back down suddenly, his fingers brushing against Hinata’s own.

His body landed in the mud, he felt a spike of pain in his shoulder. But none of that compared to the pain he felt when the green eco began to leap around his body. It was like his every nerve was on fire. He felt his limbs spasm uncontrollably, lightning was dancing up and down his spine, his body was screaming to make it stop.

Not again, Akaashi thought.

Hinata watched from above for a moment, helpless as his friend writhed in pain. It like Akaashi had become the puppet to a master that was manic. Invisible strings pulled his limbs in out to their furthest reach before dragging them back in close to his chest. His twisted in ways that Hinata had never seen a body twist. Akaashi was dragged by the invisible strings onto his back and Hinata saw his face. He’d never seen emotion in Akaashi’s artificial eyes before, but this time he did.

Despair. Complete and agonising.

Hinata reached out, wishing he could help.

A bolt of green eco soared past his ear and he awoke from the trace.

He looked up at the thugs, back down at Akaashi. He mouth an apology.

And then he ran, slinking away into the shadows and rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLOT TWIST!! Kenma shows up that shit hits the fan. Sorry to people who like Takeda, I feel really bad for what I did to the poor guy. But not as bad as I feel for Hinata, or Akaashi, or poor poor Tadashi (they deserve a writer who does fluff rather than gritty, dark, unforgiving angst like me).  
> I am super sorry that this chapter was late (like, really late). I've just moved to University so my life has been pretty hectic the last few weeks but also really exciting. It's super great and I've made some actual friends which is amazing.  
> Although because of the Uni thing I'm not going to promise fixed date for the next chapter, I'm gonna do it as quickly as I can, but I have a feeling it's gonna be harder to get it all done quickly. Sorry about it, but I'm just trying to be honest.
> 
> Next Chapter brought to you by: Hinata in hiding, Akaashi imprisoned and breaking down, Bokuto in full panic. Kenma getting ruthless for the sake of a friend.


End file.
